I’ll run until he’s in my arms, andthenI’ll yell at him. I’ll scream and hit and cry and tell him how foolish he is.
My sweet, stupid Julian.
I finally break through the tree line, passing the exterior of the west tower. Over the wind, I cannot hear what Atticus and Julian are saying from where they stand, roughly sixty feet away.
Now fifty feet.
Julian says something, something that makes Atticus drop his arms in defeat.
Thirty feet.
They’re just staring at each other, something passing between them.
Twenty feet.
Atticus retreats a step. Julian turns back to the waves.
“No,”I whisper, forcing myself to push harder, to run faster despite the pain coursing through me. “NO!”
Julian jumps.
At the ledge, I fall to my knees.
I do not see him hit the water. I didn’t reach the cliff in time.
“No,” I repeat, a soft, murmured sound.
The wind around me is cold, biting into my skin. I’ve never been able to feel it before—not truly. Not since I turned eighteen.
But now, my skin cools quickly, reacting to the bitter air. The buzzing in my veins fizzes out, and something like static—something I’ve grown so used to that I haven’t truly noticed it—quiets in my mind.
In the distance, a vicious, violent shrieking can be heard. And then it fades away.
A cord inside my chest snaps.
And I know. I know before a rescue team is called or a report is filed that Julian is dead. Because he was right—and the curse is broken.
I am free.
I would rather be dead.
I know he is gone, yet I still beg, “Atticus,please.Save him. Save him!”
I can feel Atticus approaching from behind me, but he says nothing, as if he, too, can feel the lack of Julian’s life around us, and knows that he cannot save him.
Without a thought, I tip forward.
Atticus grabs my shoulders, shouting. “Are you crazy?! What are you doing?!”
“I have to save him,” I say, but I sound far away, as if I’m in a daze. “Let me go; let me get him.”
“If you jump, you’ll die too!” Atticus insists.
I know he’s right. I know that. But if there is any possibility that I can reach him and pull him from these waves, I have to try.
“Please,” I whisper, turning to look up at my big brother.
Something pained and miserable twists his face as he stares back at me, but all I can feel is a misery so deep that it’s gutting me from the inside out.
